Worked for one organization briefly well-known in its time (rented video tapes), where the IT Director (top IT position in the company) was a non-tech former IT auditor for Arthur Anderson who'd been hired out from that consulting firm. She was NOT technical AT ALL, and yet A.A. had her doing IT audits.
A close relative was requested by a certain branch of the Pentagon (1980s) to audit their PC security. She told her boss she did not know squat about computers (she was an accountant studying for CPA). They told her they wanted her to do it anyway.
I can understand wanting an end-user perspective but well..
I could tell another story about the above named auditing firm but time is short...
Alan
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Stone, Joel
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2013 10:54 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Top problems for CIOs, business value of IT?
CIOs have to trust their people. Back when I was on the farm my Uncle
would give me a task and I would pick the equipment for it, he didn't
say "use the John Deere" etc.
I disagree.
In MOST skilled positions in most sizable organizations throughout history, skill levels have bubbled up to the top positions.
For example, a Chief Surgeon at your state medical teaching hospital may not have done any surgery in 10 years. But when a cluster of patients start dying on the table, hospital mgmt wants a surgeon running the surgery group so he/she can get to the issue/root cause and remedy the situation - without relying on hear-say of underlings.
Same for a Flight Operations group. When American Airlines has a spike of near-misses, they don't want an MBA for a Chief Pilot - they want one of their most experienced pilots who is able to sort out the facts from the CYA going on in the ranks.
But for IT, which is the most complex part of most modern businesses, top management doesn't seem interested in having a techie in the CIO spot.
(Nothing against MBA's of course).
Its nothing to do with trust or religion. When things go south in IT - which they sometimes do - it takes a sleuth techie to dig thru the haystack and find the needle.
Maybe there just aren't any techies out there that are CIO material, but that doesn't seem possible to me.
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DrFranken
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2013 7:12 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Top problems for CIOs, business value of IT?
Far too many shops operate like the U.S. government: "It's not my fault, I didn't pick that/support that" and blame their predecessors.
Honestly I see a huge amount of effort spent simply moving from one platform to another on purely 'religious' grounds and having nothing to do with technical capability or actual (vs imagined) need. How many times have we heard on this list alone about companies spending a zillion bucks on attempts to move off IBM i and even if they succeed they've wasted huge amounts of time and money and probably lost momentum for change. Even worse when they fail....
Joel mentioned lack of tech savvy of many CIOs. I second that to a large degree. However, I have met some who have a strong team of 'advisers' or managers which they actively listen to and trust. The CIO interfaces with the other C level folks and brings back business goals, targets, and funding while bringing to them issues, timelines, and solutions.
CIOs have to trust their people. Back when I was on the farm my Uncle would give me a task and I would pick the equipment for it, he didn't say "use the John Deere" etc. He also didn't let me run down the road and just grab something from the neighbor! Shop standards in place put parameters around what's valid and inside that staff has to have flexibility to use whats there. I see far too many shops with either no standards or stupidly restrictive ones.
Clearly CIOs also have to battle lower budgets in many cases and hugely accelerated project schedules, frequently they are unrealistic. Look at the ACA exchanges, those things are massive undertakings with very tight schedules, is it any wonder then that they crashed and burned?
Another issue is the purported IT skills of the 'average user' these days. It's incredible how users claim IT knowledge and then use that to shame IT folks into shorter deadlines. "It's Just a Database, COPY it for crying out loud, How Hard Can That Be!?"
- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com
On 10/10/2013 11:57 AM, BT Consulting wrote:
I know this is mostly a technical site, but what are the top problems bugging CIOs, especially with respect to IT and the main business? Looking for strategic concerns/problems they are trying to solve. While I know this is an iSeries-centric site, I'd like feedback from those folks that are in/around shops that have multiple platforms as well. Are CIOs still dealing with the business value of IT or are they mainly focused on technical problems; I hope they are thinking more strategic. Any questions on what I'm talking about, please ask.
Thanks,
Dave Odom
Casa Grande, AZ
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